Change Your Mind

Message Transcription

Happy Father's Day this morning. I was thinking about this on the way over here especially, and then kind of got in the room and started seeing some familiar faces. My children were born at this church, and then when we left this church and moved to Enid, Oklahoma, we took a one and almost three year old with us. And this morning, they're sitting over there at 13 and 11. So it's very interesting to think about some of those things and getting a chance to have my children blessed at this church and cared for. We're going to jump in to this conversation of Colossians this morning. And as I was kind of chatting with Carl about what this needed to be, what it could be, all of the different nuances of not necessarily just this text, but the series with which you guys are going to go through over the summer. I think I want to begin here several years ago, and it was in all honesty, it wasn't too long after we left Broadway. I was sitting in a friend's office. He is was a former minister, a friend of mine. And we were we were just chatting together and he was telling me the story. He had spent an entire career in the US Air Force. He had risen as high as Colonel. He was a he was a bigwig. And for those of you who know anything about Enid, Oklahoma, Vance Air Force Base is there. And we would we routinely get a chance to go out to Vance Air Force Base, hang out.

And, you know, Colonel, is what they would all call him. And they didn't know who I was because it didn't matter. But they would see him and say, hey, there's you know, there's the colonel, and he would take us all around. We get to do all sorts of fun things. But I remember getting a chance to, like I said, sit in his office. And I asked him, I mean, we were just still kind of getting to know each other. Tell me about your life. Like, how did you get here? How did we get from, you know, 40 years in the US Air Force to Enid, Oklahoma, as family minister to this congregation. And he said, you know, it's really, really interesting. I had done all of these things, but I felt like after I left the Air Force, God had called me in to doing some form of ministry. And we loved Enid and we had some family in the area. And so I just kind of started to volunteer to do family type things of bringing people together across multiple generations. And it evolved into kind of a maybe a two day a week job, and then it evolved into like a three day a week job. And then, as is routinely the case in churches, he was being paid for two days a week, but he would work seven, right? That's a joke. That's like a minister joke.

Relax, you know? But he was supposed to only be working, you know, part time. But it became this full time job to join this church and love on them and care for them. I was like, That's really, really interesting. And we continued to talk and I told him about my life. And at that time I was doing master's work at LSU and he said, you know. Well, let me tell you my story about my masters. Let's go for it. After having left the Air Force and getting into ministry, he felt ill prepared in some cases to do what comes along with full time ministry. Both from a textual work through scripture kind of way and then also from even some of the pastoral counseling type stuff that kind of goes with that. And he said he got three courses in. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. He was working on a master's of divinity from Oklahoma Christian University. I don't know about this. He started his fourth class in 3 to 4 weeks into his fourth class. He quit. And I asked him, it's like. Why? What what was it what was it that kept you from going on? And did you get busy? I mean, I know you've got grandkids. You got family like, what was it he said, you know, Josh? My world view was nice and neat. I understood it. It made sense. I had built. And had constructed in some cases what I wanted and what I thought was nice and clean, black and white.

This was good. This was bad. These people were the right people. These people were the wrong people. And then all of a sudden I got a few classes in and they started to kind of poke holes in my faith. And the next thing I knew, they were poking holes in this and they were poking holes in that. And they were telling me, But what about this historical context or how do you read scripture here when this is what was going on and this church? And all of a sudden there were things that I thought I believed that I wasn't so sure I believed anymore. And I didn't know what to do with that. And I got scared. I got scared. Because. I was not ready to take in the change that they were asking me to go through. So I appreciate your comments on change. Also, clearly, Richard, you did not put toilet paper on the right way when you first got married. But you think about the change that comes with learning more about God. And I think the thing that's been beautiful, my dad's getting and my dad's here with us this morning on Father's Day. But one of the things that I would tell I would say about growing up and some of you know this about us, we I got to grow up in Ecuador. My parents were missionaries there.

My brother and I had this conversation a couple of different times. I think one of the things that was a beautiful piece of that for me is I kind of got okay with change in a lot of ways. You don't have a choice, right? I think the worst change was not moving to Ecuador. I think the worst change for us as kids was moving back to land passes. I was like, we've just been in a city of a million and a half people in the mountains. In Latin America and now we're in LA impasses. Where are we? Who are these people? And why do you keep asking me to show hogs? Like. Like we. I have a Boston terrier, man. That's as good as it gets, right? But you think about all the change that comes with all of these different things. As God gets bigger, oftentimes it's scary. Let me ask you a question. I'll finish the story about my friend here in just a moment. Do you remember in Genesis chapter three? What's at the root of the sin, what we call the fall of man. What's at the root. You have this interesting conversation that takes place between the serpent and Eve. And they begin to debate on what's okay to eat, what's not okay to eat. And he makes the statement, you know, I'm not allowed to eat the fruit. I'm not allowed to touch it or we're going to die. And then the serpent who's clearly messing with the eve, trying to.

Wiggle in some doubt. Comes in and says, Yo, you're certainly not going to die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes are going to be opened and you will be like God knowing both good and evil. What's at the root of the sin. Let me ask it this way. What command is given in Scripture more than any other. Some of you are mouthing it right now. Do not fear. Over and over and over Scripture. Throughout the history of all people, God is continuously telling His people do not fear. In this moment, I've come to believe, at least for me, one of the things that has jumped out, I think at the root of this conversation with the serpent is this fear, because God had ordered the world the way he wanted to order the world. And if you go back to Genesis chapter one, verse one, it talks about God's spirit hovering over the waters before any of creation comes into play. Well in Jewish understanding the waters the way that they were talking about it in particularly in this way, the waters represented chaos. Chaos. God's spirit hovered over the chaos, and God began to order things the way that He wanted the world to be ordered so that he would have his perfect creation. And he had put a man to oversee it. But under him and in this moment, she is tempted with, Do you want to be like God? Do you want to be in control? Do you want to order the world the way you want to order the world? And since that fall, we have watched throughout all of history humanity in some cases destroy itself and destroy one another because we want control and we want to order the world.

We want to say this is how it works. This is how it should go. And I look at my friend's story. And when he talked about professors and classmates sharing experiences and showing things from Scripture that he had not seen or talking about the things in which God had done in their lives in ways that he wasn't sure he was comfortable with. This will hit home. For those of you who've been at Broadway for a while, he talked about an African missionary who talked about all sorts of crazy things that would happen in some of these villages. And he was like, I don't know about that. Tim Talley. The world got big. And it was scary. I want to read for you this passage from Colossians. I'm going to go just a little bit further in it. Paul makes this statement. In Colossians three, verse five. He starts with they're four. So you know what we just talked about? What was just read for us? Here's the connection, therefore. Put to death what belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil, desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God's wrath is coming upon the disobedient.

And you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But put them away. Now allow allowing. The death of anger, wrath, malice, slander and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. Since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, you are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. In Christ there is not Greek and Jew circumcision and UN circumcision, barbarian Scythian, slave and free. But Christ is all and is in all. Therefore. As God's chosen one's holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a grievance against one another, just as the Lord has forgiven you. So you are also to forgive. Above all. Put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity and let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body. Rule your hearts and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts and whatever you do in word or indeed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God, the Father through Him. I love that passage. The amount of times if you go back and you read through Paul's epistles, him using the word therefore is I mean, he uses it a lot because he wants you to know I'm making some connections here.

We've just had that passage read for us. We talked about these minds that our minds are supposed to be set upon things above and not upon earthly things. And I think it's important to point out here, especially with the Gnostic heresies that were taking place in Colossus at the time, that Paul is not saying that the physical is bad and the spiritual is the only thing that's good. That's not what he's saying. He's giving two competing worldviews. And the two competing worldviews that Paul is giving to this little church is this one worldview over here is fear driven. It is about self-preservation and sin. It's about control. Do you see the list of things that he gave? When it comes to sins, even lust is about control of some sort. Using people rather than honoring the image of God. And he gives this list of. Indulging in that type of. That type of way. That is the broken world view. Even the self-preservation side of it. But then there is the things above things, the mind being set on things above. This is the world that is driven by the Christ Himself. Where sacrificial love reigns at every turn. And had it only been about the spiritual and not the physical, we don't end up with the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Having Christ God himself fully, physically present to us.

He talks about how we are being renewed in the knowledge according to the image of our creator. There is creation language all throughout Colossians. And you remember what was read just a few minutes ago in Colossians chapter one, that Christ was there in the beginning, that all things were made through him by him for him. He did it all. We read the Gospel of John in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. Our knowledge is being renewed as we're being repurposed, where body and spirit come together to look like Christ. If you go even further in some appalls conversations, he talks about Jesus being the new atom, that that Jesus is what Adam was always supposed to look like. But here's one of the things that I think happens and our struggles with fear and wanting to control and wanting the world to not be so big. Can you imagine if Paul had stopped Colossians chapter three after the list of things not to do? I'm going to give you this long list of things you shouldn't do. Saved by grace. Go with God. Done. Not gone further and talked about putting on compassion and humility and kindness and all of those things. One of the things that I've done in my life and one of the things that I feel like I've seen as I've ministered in different churches. Is that when the world gets big and I get scared and I'm not sure what to do with culture.

I retreat. And I become defined by what I don't do. As opposed to entering in the world with sacrificial love and being defined by the call of Christ to live out the kingdom. Now hear me. Want to talk about this for a moment? I'm going to give you this caveat, because I want to make sure you're hearing me. I am not saying you are saved by works. What I am saying, though, is, is because of your salvation, you go to work. Does that make sense? Okay. But I think what happens oftentimes is we take a step back and we look at the culture wars that are supposedly taking place all around us and this and that and all the things that are happening. And we retreat and we take a step back because the world is getting too big. It feels out of control. And the next thing we know, we become a people who are known for what we're against. We don't do these behaviors. And our good news to the world is don't do that. If you do that, you're bad. We're good because we don't do those things. And if you start to look at statistics and data right now. From places like. Pew Research. What do you know about Christianity right now in the United States of America? What's the church known for? What? What do you know about them? And often times what is reported over and over and over.

Is, Well, they hate this group of people and they don't like this group of people. And I'm not banging on the church this morning. I want you to hear me. I want us I want us to have this real conversation. A real conversation about identity. Because now is somebody who's not necessarily ministering to the church day in and day out like I got a chance to. In the past, I have started to a little bit easier look at my children and go, Okay, what, what direction are your mom and I helping you go right now in your life? Because the statistics on anxiety in our culture today. Even since COVID have skyrocketed. Skyrocketed. Pre-covid. Pre-covid data was telling us that one in three people struggled with anxiety day in and day out. Now as of 2021, we have statistics telling us that almost 45% of our nation struggles with anxiety day in and day out, one third of which supposedly. Are probably clinically battling anxiety. It is extremely easy, I think when you look at all of the things that are going on to just take a step back and go, well, we don't do those things and we're going to self preserve. Because what Paul calls the church, too, is messy. What Paul calls the church, too, is difficult because it means I enter into the world if I'm going to enter into the world with compassion and humility and kindness, if the peace of Christ is going to rule in my heart.

Think about the intentionality in the discernment that has to take place day in and day out for the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts. Think about the surrender that needs to take place there. That I don't get to order the world. I believe in a God who is redeeming the world. And I believe in a story that says, I already know the end. Let me give you another example. If this isn't hitting home just yet. What does it mean to be pro-life? In the United States of America today. What does it mean to be pro-life? If you go right now to the Oxford Dictionary, if you go right now to Merriam-Webster, what it will tell you is something along the lines of opposing abortion. And then it's done. Think about that for just a moment. Okay. To be pro-life based upon the way language has moved in our culture today, to be pro-life is not to be for anything. It is simply to step back and go, Well, I'm not for that. And my question is, if we take Paul's conversation of him sending the church out with boldness, if we take that conversation with seriousness, what does it look like for the church to be full pro-life in its fullest form? What does it look like for you and I to enter into the world and say I am pro-life for kids and the mother? Who's not sure what to do.

I am pro-life for the kid and for a society in which we actually do take care of the poor so that they have resources. Because. I mean, Jesus talks about money, literally. 10% of the time in the Gospels. I mean, what what does it look like to discern these types of things where we enter into our world and we go, you know what, I want to love babies and single mothers. I want to know I want to love the women who've already had abortions. What does it look like to be pro-life, truly through the lens of Jesus Christ when we start talking about war or violence? Those with disabilities, the elderly, those who are on death row. What does it look like to be pro-life in Jesus way of doing things when it comes to seeing the fatherless or the homeless or the foreigner? Can I put on? Humility, kindness, compassion. The way that God has called me to put those things on, to leave self-preservation behind and go with self sacrifice so that I might be this for the world. It's hard sometimes to have those conversations. Here's the crazy thing about it, right? 365 times. Throughout all of scripture. We are commanded and actually kind of like that word in this sense. Do not fear. Which means I don't have to. I don't have to fear discomfort. I'm commanded not to fear repentance. I'm commanded not to fear other people. I'm commanded not to fear our culture.

I'm commanded not to fear the future. I'm commanded not to fear learning more. I'm commanded not to fear. Changing myself. Being changed. I'm commanded not to fear loving other people. I'm commanded not to fear people who look differently or believe differently. I'm commanded not to fear the complexities of life. And the reason I'm called. Commanded not to fear. Is because the resurrection sits at the heart of who I am. You don't have to fear those things. Any of it. And what would it look like? To have a conversation with your spouse about how to parent. Not in fear. Or to enter into our world unafraid or to watch the news unafraid. That's the spirit of God that is sitting here in the midst of all of us that I can enter into this comfort, the discomfort, and go, Yeah, I'm good. My God. Walked up out of a grave. He brought me up out of a grave. We can navigate this. We know how the story ends. And we proclaim to the world, this is how the story ends and why they don't have to be afraid and why they can find the fullest possible life by living out self-sacrifice themselves. That's our story. Let me finish with this. He is the image of the invisible God. The first born over all of creation. For everything was created by him in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things. And by him, all things hold together. He is the head of the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead. So that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on Earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed. On the cross. On the cross. Christ is all and is in all. And I go into the world unafraid. You have the strength to go into the world unafraid. Let me pray for you and we'll have our next song. God, we humbly. Surrender ourselves to you this morning. We give ourselves to your story, God to the redeeming story that brings all things new life. Father for the behaviors in our lives that are causing us hurt and sin and brokenness. God, we ask you to. To give us the better way of discerning in our minds. The mind of Christ that leads us to compassion and humility. Kindness. Care for others. Peace. That you would give us a strength and a courage to know that as you get bigger, as the world gets bigger, we do not have to fear. You are the strongest presence within our world today. And you are bringing life. Made Minister through Jesus the Christ. We pray. Amen.